Implicit Knowledge, Stress and Skill Failure R.S.W. Masters
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Implicit knowledge, stress and skill failure R.S.W. Masters Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The Department of Psychology University of York England September 1992 Contents Figures Tables iv Acknowledgements Abstract vi Prologue Chapter 1: An introduction 1.1 Implicit learning 3 1.2 The passage of learning: From inexpert to expert 5 1.3 Skill failure: From expert to inexpert 7 1.4 Stress and skill failure 10 1.5 Theories relevant to the role of stress in performance 12 1.6 The thesis structure 26 Chapter 2: The role of explicit versus implicit knowledge in the breakdown of a complex motor skill under pressure 2.1 An introduction to Study 1 28 2.2 Method 31 2.3 Results 35 2.4 Discussion 45 Chapter 3: Reminiscing about implicit learning 3.1 An introduction to Study 2 49 3.2 Method 52 3.3 Results 55 3.4 Discussion 57 [ii Chapter 4: 'Reinvestment': A dimension of personality implicated in skill breakdown under pressure 4.1 An introduction to Study's 3, 4, 5 & 6 60 4.2 Study 3 63 4.2.1 Method & Results 64 4.2.2 Discussion 66 4.3 Study 4 68 4.3.1 Method 68 4.3.2 Results 71 4.3.3 Discussion 77 4.4 Study 5 77 4.4.1 Method 77 4.4.2 Results & Discussion 78 4.5 Study 6 79 4.5.1 Method 79 4.5.2 Results & Discussion 79 4.6 General Discussion 81 Chapter 5: Conclusions 5.1 A summary of the aims and findings 84 5.2 Further research 87 5.3 Practical applications 93 References 101 Appendices 117 Figures Figure 1.1: The inverted-U performance/arousal curve 13 Figure 1.2: The catastrophe model of the relationship between stress, autonomic arousal and performance (Hardy & Fazey, 1987) 15 Figure 1.3: Hysteresis, as predicted by the Hardy & Fazey (1987) model under conditions of high cognitive anxiety 16 Figure 1.4: The modified version of Sander's (1983) model of the stress/performance relationship (Jones & Hardy, 1988) 19 Figure 1.5: The telic-paratelic relationship in Reversal Theory (Apter, 1982) ...21 Figure 2.1: Mean number of explicit rules reported in the Implicit Learning (IL), Explicit Learning (EL), Implicit Learning Control (ILC), Stressed Control (SC) and Non-stressed Control (N-SC) groups 36 Figure 2.2: Mean State Anxiety scores in Sessions 3 and 5 38 Figure 2.3: Mean number of putts holed as a function of the skill acquisition phase (Sessions 1 to 4) and the test phase (Session 5) 41 Figure 3.1: Mean performance (%) for the Implicit Learning-massed (IL-M), Implicit Learning-spaced (IL-S), Control-massed (CON-M) and Control-spaced (CON-S) groups as a function of acquisition phase and test phase 56 Figure 4.1: Mean number of contacts made on a 2-dimensional Rod Tracing apparatus by high and low scorers on the Reinvestment Scale (control groups) over 15 acquisition trials 72 Figure 4.2: Mean number of contacts made on a 2-dimensional Rod Tracing apparatus by high and low scorers on the Reinvestment Scale (experimental groups) over 15 acquisition trials and 1 stressed trial 75 Figure 5.1: An illustration of the 'analogical forehand' method employed by the author in teaching a top-spun forehand in tennis 98 [iv] Tables Table 2.1: Means and standard deviations of heart rate in groups pre- and post- stress intervention in Session 5 39 Table 2.2: Means and standard deviations of task-completion times in groups in Sessions 4 and 5 40 Table 4.1: Items and loadings on the second factor - Reinvestment 67 Table 4.2: Mean heart rate and standard deviations for high and low reinvesters prior to stress intervention and after stress intervention 74 Table 4.3: Mean number of contacts and standard deviations for high and low reinvesters prior to stress intervention and after stress intervention 76 Table 4.4: Mean stress-failure ratings and scores on the Reinvestment Scale with standard deviations for tennis and squash separately 80 [v] Acknowledgements To all those who have helped me I would say thankyou. Particularly, to Nick my trusted supervisor, John my sport psychologist and Remco who arrived a student became a colleague and left a friend. To Derek for waking me, Si for caring and Lesley who always dropped what she was doing. To Cap who became more than a sister, Mum and Dad, so close despite the distance, and Pete who showed me where to find triumph in disaster. And most of all to Alexandra, my daughter, for, although she does not know it, the days would have been darker, the nights longer, without her. Thankyou. [vi] Abstract At the heart of this work is a curiosity as to why expert performers, who have so practised their skill that they can execute it perfectly time after time, often fail when under extreme pressure to perform well. The work begins with discussion of key issues in performance, such as implicit versus explicit knowledge, the passage of learning - from novice to expert, controlled to automatic - the effects of stress on skill performance and the nature of skill failure. Once the foundations of the research have been layed the thesis embarks on a number of investigations which suggest that it is possible to teach a motor skill without the learner ever acquiring conscious, explicit knowledge of the rules for executing it, that acquiring a skill in this manner may make it less likely to fail under stress because the performer has no explicit knowledge with which to execute the skill, that some individuals have more of a predisposition than others to try to run their skill with explicit knowledge and that these individuals are more likely to fail under stress. The thesis concludes that traditional methods of instructing performers, which emphasise explicit, technical 'know-how', and require the performer to be very conscious of the action, are not necessarily the most effective methods of skill acquisition if the skill is not to fail under pressure. The implication, as the author illustrates in the final chapter, is that alternative methods of instruction or coaching need to be developed which at least reduce the degree to which the performer is conscious of the rules for executing his or her chosen skill. Prologue In 1958 Boris Pasternak wrote his famous novel "Doctor Zhivago". At one point Yura Andreyevich Zhivago delivers an impromptu lecture to Anna Ivanovna Gromeko on life and death: "To try consciously to go to sleep is a sure way to have insomnia. To try to be conscious of one's own digestion is a sure way to upset the stomach. Consciousness is a poison when we apply it to ourselves. Consciousness is a beam of light directed outwards, it lights up the way ahead of us so that we don't trip up. It's like the head-lamps on a railway engine - if you turned the beam inwards there would be a catastrophe." (from Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak, 1958) In 1989 in the United States Golf Championship an American, Scott Hoch, missed not one but two gimmes (extremely easy putts) at the death. Had he holed either putt he would have been champion. Instead, Nick Faldo of England became champion. In 1986 Steve Davis, that most clinical of the great snooker players, missed the final black of the final frame to lose the World Championship. Ivan Lendl played brilliant grass-court tennis in 1991 to win the Queen's Club tournament yet at Wimbledon the week after, where he so wanted to win, Lendl lost appallingly. In the same week at Wimbledon Martina Navratilova double faulted at match point down to lose to the young American Jennifer Capriati. In the semi-final of soccer's World Cup in 1990 both Chris Waddle and Stuart Pearce missed penalties against West Germany. [1] On the other hand, Stefan Edberg - the then world number one tennis player - commented on one of his great performances, "I had one of those days when I played almost perfect tennis... In the third set you start to think a little bit and wonder if it is a dream, but I said to myself 'just keep concentrating on each point'. If you start to think you can easily get into trouble" (The Times, Jan., 1990). Following a famous victory in the 1987 French Open Tennis Championships Martina Navratilova told journalists, "I played for an hour and I don't think I missed a shot. Everything was happening without my having to think". Juan Belmonte, the famous spanish bull-fighter, said of the fight which made him a legend in his country, "all at once I forgot the public, the other bull-fighters, myself, and even the bull.. .1 simply fought as I believe one ought to fight, without a thought, outside my own faith in what I was doing" (Atlantic Monthly, Feb., 1937). Lisa Opie, British Squash Champion many times over, said "but the best match I must ever have played, I can't remember a thing about...I might remember the first service, but that's all. I was in a trance of concentration, a cocoon of invincibility. I came off, and still don't have a clue about the score. Except that I beat her. You play by instinct, by auto-pilot, and you win famously. It's uncanny" (The Guardian, Nov., 1988). How do these periods of peak performance as well as these famous failures of skill relate to a lecture on life and death by a fictional character in a classic novel? In all of the examples cited an inward turning of attention, a focusing of consciousness on the act to be performed, was either absent when peak performance occurred or very probably present when skill failure took place.